Unfaithfulness

Luke 12:42-48, 13:6-9

Welcome! Today we continue our series on the parables. Our passages today are both from Luke, chapter 12 verses 42 to 48 and chapter 13 verses 6 to 9. But I want to start one verse earlier, Luke 12:41. This verse occurs right after Jesus teaches another parable, one that we looked at last week about being dressed ready for service and keeping your lamps burning like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet. It concludes with a statement that you must also be ready because the Son of Man will come at a time when you do not expect Him. Anyway, here is the next verse, Luke 12:41:

Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” – Luke 12:41

I think this is a great question, not just with regards to this particular parable, but for every parable. And to be even more specific, I think the question we really want to ask is “Lord, is this parable for me? Do I need to worry about this? Or is this for other people, maybe unbelievers, or maybe leaders, or someone else?”

I think that, in general, the answer is pretty clear. The parables are for all whose eyes and ears are open to see and listen. Nobody is excluded from the meaning and application of a parable except those who, through their own hard hearts, through their own resistance to the Holy Spirit, refuse to humble themselves and really sit before the Lord and listen to Him. I have quoted 2 Tim. 3:16 many times on a Sunday morning, but I will quote it again: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” Any time you find yourself dismissing a section of Scripture on the basis that you don’t think it applies to you, you are making a mistake.

For example, maybe you are single and have thought the passages on husbands and wives should relate to one another (for example, Ephesians 5) do not apply to you. You would be wrong, for many reasons. An obvious one is that you might be married in the future. But even if not, God may use you to speak to a married friend or to another family member. But beyond the literal application, the instructions are simply examples of a principle that we all are to follow, as it says in Ephesians 5:21, to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In the same way, the passages about masters and slaves apply to us as well, even though none of us literally have masters or own slaves.  “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” The word translated as useful is ophelion which more literally means “heaped up”, “piled up.” The KJV translates this word as profitable. By studying the entire Bible, we are heaping up principles, wisdom, and knowledge about God and salvation as well as about how to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him. 

So how does Jesus answer the question? As is often the case, He answers with another question. He doesn’t answer the question directly. His response is the first parable we will look at in depth today.

The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. – Luke 12:42-46

So, does Jesus really answer the question? I picture the scene – as John suggested last week, Jesus is speaking loudly to a large crowd; the disciples are close but Jesus is speaking loudly enough for all around to hear. And so Peter asks who the last parable is for, probably in a lower voice, and Jesus responds to the crowd, saying “Who then is the faithful and wise manager?” On the one hand, the parable should point to the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders, right? How might these leaders take this parable? Rather badly, I suppose. Often when someone is confronted with their sin, especially someone for whom sin has become a way a life, a lifestyle, repentance is not the outcome, but instead the result is anger. Especially when Jesus talks about chopping him up into pieces and giving him a place with the unbelievers (which the Jews would probably take to be non-Jews whom they didn’t even associate with), they would likely take great offense, saying, “Just who does this guy think he is?” Jesus talks more about who God puts in charge of things in other parables and teachings, so I don’t want to pursue this too much more today. Instead I want to focus on the message of the parable itself.

One point I want to make first off is the last word of this passage, translated in the NIV as unbelievers. In Greek the word is apistos, which is literally the not-faith-ones. Now in Greek, a lot like in English, the word faith has a variety of meanings, some of which are more “secular” and others which are very religious in implication. One mistake we can make when reading the parables of Jesus is to assume that every one of them is primarily about salvation. When we do this we can get all twisted up and start to wonder if salvation really is just by faith or does it also depend on works. The entire Roman Catholic Church has fallen into this error.

We need to remember that Jesus’ parables were not primarily about doctrine, but were meant to prick the heart. Much of what Jesus shared was what I would call “pre-gospel”; that is, it is meant to get people to the place that they see the hopelessness of their situation apart from Godly intervention, Godly mercy, Godly help. We know this help is through Christ; we know the gospel, the good news, that Christ gave up His life to reconcile us to Him, and we know that by placing our trust in Him, not just in a theological position but in a day-to-day dependence, He saved us and He helps us to live more and more as He desires us to live.

That being said, again going back to 2 Timothy 3:16, we never in this life outgrow the need to hear the pre-gospel. We need our hearts pricked because we are easily distracted, we easily grow lazy, and we continually manage to blind ourselves to areas of disobedience in our own lives. And so this parable, like so many others, manages to simultaneously speak powerful truth into the lives of those who don’t know or follow Christ and to those who do.

Let’s read it again:

Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. – Luke 12:42-46

When the boss is away, how does the office run? When the parents are away, what do the children do? When the church attenders are not at church under the watchful eyes of their pastors and other believers, how do they behave? These are all modern versions of the situation in the parable. In many of the parables, Jesus likes to describe managers or leaders of servants and often gives some details showing that different ones have different responsibilities. In that culture, this was life. We don’t live in a culture that has true servants, so it takes a little more work for us to “get into” the parable, but I think these examples of the office, the home with children, and the church can help us to enter in.

And in this parable, the servant who has the managerial position decides that he’s got plenty of time, so he does whatever he wants. So it’s party time! He disrespects those under him, treating them cruelly, and gets himself drunk. Notice that it says he beats both men and women. I find this a very curious detail. Sometimes you hear critics of the Bible (typically people who haven’t actually read it for themselves) say they reject it because of how it treats women. I just want to point out that the only reason to mention the “and women” part is because this must be even more unacceptable than just beating the men. Now I suppose you might find an ultrafeminist out there who says well, he should beat both the men and women, because he should treat them equally, but most reasonable people today would understand what the parable is getting at, and would agree that this behavior is even more reprehensible.

Well, of course, the master comes earlier than the wicked manager thought he would come, and he is caught. The master won’t listen to any lame excuses – he punishes the offender severely. The Greek word here is dichotomeo, which literally means into two pieces. We get the word dichotomy from this; dichotomy means a division or contrast between two things that are opposed or entirely different. But in this parable, I don’t think the literal definition is meant; instead it means a severe scourging. This guy is alive enough to be thrown outside with the other unfaithful ones. Again, we need to be careful not to read too much into the parable. It is not a doctrinal treatise on the nature of salvation. It’s simply describing a master whose managing servant ran amok while he was gone, and whom he punished and got rid of afterwards. This is the parable.

So what are we to do with it? Well first, we need to ask if we are in any way acting like this unfaithful manager. Some people say they have “accepted” Christ as a kind of fire insurance but then go on to live selfishly with no further thought to God or what it might mean to live for Him. Such people may well never have been saved. People thinking like this need to be reminded that God sees. I like how the KJV translates Genesis 16:13, “Thou God seest me.” We are mistaken if we think the Master is away at all. Jesus in body may not be here, but God is aware of every action and, indeed, every thought that we have.

But even if we have truly decided to live for Christ, we still can fall into a trap in which areas of our life look like that of the wicked manager. If you are still under your parents, what do you do when they aren’t home or aren’t watching? If your boss at work isn’t there, what do you do at work? Someone has said that the greatest test of our character is what we do when no one is watching. (And again, that is an error, because “Thou God seest me.”)

But beyond these specific examples, we are all stewards; we are all managers. We are managers of our money. How do we spend it? Do we spend it only on ourselves? We are managers of our time. Do we waste our time? I’m not saying that we cannot have free time; we need time to recharge. The Sabbath was given to us for this purpose. I’m not saying we need to be legalistic about the Sabbath – that is the opposite error. But there is a principle in the Sabbath that applies to us – we do need balance in our lives, and that balance includes some rest and relaxation. But many in our culture take this to extreme excess. Most people if they truly counted up how much time they “waste” would be shocked.

It is also possible to not “waste” time in the sense of, for example, entertainment, and still be a terrible steward of our time. What are we doing to serve the Lord? Do we spend time each day in prayer? Do we spend time each day in God’s Word? Do we spend time building up other believers? Do we spend time with unbelieving friends we know and prayerfully and specifically seek to engage that person spiritually?

The bottom line is the following: would Jesus call you a faithful manager? Would He call you a wise manager? If not, what needs to change? If the Lord brings something to mind, write that down now.  We will come back to this at the end of the message. But let me continue on with the next verses. This parable isn’t exactly over. Or to be maybe more precise, Jesus is sharing a series of parables, of pictures of managers who don’t deserve to be called faithful and wise. We have just seen the wicked manager who lives totally for himself, shirks his responsibilities, and beats those under him. Jesus goes on to give more examples:

“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. – Luke 12:47-48

Again, it is important to remember we are in “parable world” here. This is not a doctrinal statement. Jesus isn’t saying He is going to beat us all with blows when we enter heaven! Yes, in one sense the master is like God. But that doesn’t mean that the master in the parable has all the character qualities of God. Does that make sense? Again, I cannot emphasize how important it is to be careful not to overstate the theological implications of a parable.

So we now have this servant who knows what he is supposed to do. We don’t know his motivations, but he may well believe that his master will return at any time. Yet he too doesn’t do what he is supposed to do. When the master returns, he really doesn’t care why the manager didn’t do what he was assigned. All he knows is that the work wasn’t done, and so the result is “many blows.”

Then we have a third servant. This one doesn’t even know quite what to do. He is beaten too, but with “few blows.” And then we kind of move out of the parable to Jesus’ statement that “from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Have you been given much or little? I am sorry to give you the “bad” news, but I have to conclude that everyone here has been given much. Compare yourself with a typical believer elsewhere in the world. We are rich – even the poor in America are rich compared with most of the world. We have religious freedom – we can share our faith out in the open, we can worship freely; much of the world does not have this freedom. We are rich in time (even though we don’t think we are). In many parts of the world, poverty is such that you must work longer and harder for basic subsistence. And doing chores such as cooking and washing clothes and getting food is a much bigger task than it is for us. Plenty of places still don’t even have running water – think about what it must be like to live like that. So yes, I would say we are rich in time. And we are rich in spiritual wealth – Christian materials are widely and easily available; on the Internet we can find limitless Christian teaching, training, etc. And I say without boasting that you are rich in your church fellowship – where you are surrounded by mature believers who really love the Lord and who love one another with the love of Christ. We are rich!

And so, yes, God expects much of us. He expects us to grow in Him, to serve, to share the gospel, to love others, in short to do great things in Him, because He has blessed us abundantly both materially and spiritually. We should not be like the second servant, someone I might equate today to someone who reads their Bible but does not do what it says, or like the third servant, someone I might equate today to someone who has many Bibles but does not regularly read any of them. Now our motivation should not be fear of “many blows,” but if we really understand what Christ has done for us, laying down His life, how can we not in turn lay down our lives day by day for Him?

One more thought on this parable. Perhaps you are spending time in prayer and in the Word but you still feel like the third servant who doesn’t know what to do with their free time, who isn’t quite sure how to serve the Lord. First of all, you are not alone. In fact, I think we should all wrestle with this question. In prayer, we should all ask, “Lord, what else do you want me to do?” And we should all pray like Isaiah, “Here I am; send me!” And then I encourage you to discuss this question with the elders and with the other members of the church. This should be a continuing conversation we all have with one another. As the Lord leads, the answers will be ever changing, ever growing, ever surprising you. For me, even in this past year, I have been amazed at what God is doing through me through the Christian faculty group on campus and in my new job position as undergraduate coordinator for my department. Never underestimate what God wants to do through you!

So this brings us to our second parable. Let me read it:

Then He told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” – Luke 13:6-9

Before we get into the meaning of this parable, let me just mention that we actually have a fig tree. Most commercially available fig trees are grafted; a hardy tree with a good root system is chosen for the base, and one with especially abundant or tasty fruit is chosen for the top. Unfortunately, a year or two after we planted our fig tree, the top died. At that point I thought about throwing it away just like in the parable. But I had developed a sentimental attachment to the tree, and it didn’t die; the bottom started to grow pretty well. At first the fruit was tiny and often fell off before ripening, but now it actually produces really tasty fruit (that is, if you like figs). The fruit are small, but good.

I have also felt similar to the person in this parable with regards to a dogwood tree we have in our front yard; we planted this many years ago, and this year is the first time it finally produced more than a few flowers. I don’t blame the tree for this; we planted it in really bad Carolina clay. We did the prep the soil around the root ball, but it was kind of like planting it in a clay pot, the soil was so bad. Anyway, on multiple occasions I have suggested cutting it down and replacing it with something else. Why? Because our space is limited. Our children are constantly growing something from seed, including fruit trees, but we just don’t have space for them. I imagine there is a similar issue in the parable; the fig tree is in their vineyard, presumably an area in which the soil has been carefully prepped, an area of limited size. It’s a waste for a tree to be there if it won’t produce.

I’ll mention one more plant, my favorite indoor plant of all the ones Sarah has taken care of. It is called a bleeding heart (clerondendren thomsoniae) plant. Its flowers are spectacular until winter, when the plant almost dies out completely. Without the flowers it is pretty ugly, a scraggly vine. This plant, because of its “fruit” gets total priority in our sunlit window location on our upper floor. Sarah has many other plants, but they take back seat to this one with regards to “prime” location.

As for our parable, the context is that people asked Jesus about some Galileans who were killed by Pilate and whose blood was mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus told them that they weren’t worse sinners than others, and similarly He told them that eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell were also not guiltier of sin than others. This is a good reminder for us; especially in light of recent events such as the earthquake in Nepal. Other religions, including some of those practiced in Nepal, do teach that the gods protect and also punish with events like natural disasters. But Christ here says explicitly that you cannot draw such conclusions. And the flip side perhaps is even more Christ’s point: just because you didn’t die in one of these calamities doesn’t mean that you are in good favor with God. He says, “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.” The implication is that life is fragile and short, and you don’t know when your life will end. Jesus is encouraging His listeners to repent now. And along these lines He gives us this parable.

This parable, more than many others, does seem to have some symbolism, some symbolic significance. Understand, though, that all analogies have their limitations, even Scriptural ones. But throughout the Old Testament, we see the fig tree associated with Israel, with the Jews. And undoubtedly, Jesus’ listeners understood this association. The warning of cutting down the whole fig tree implied putting an end to Jewish leadership, even an end to the sacrificial system itself, and even perhaps the destruction of the Temple. These things did all happen in 70 AD, one generation later than that which was there to hear Jesus say these things.

Continuing with the symbolism, the vineyard owner corresponds to God the Father, and the gardener to Jesus, although Jesus’ listeners at that time may not have made that last association. The three years fits in with this symbolism because that was how long Jesus had been going around proclaiming His message. The main message to Jesus’ listeners was repent now! Time is much shorter than you think!

The connection to the gardener as Jesus also fits in the sense that in those days, a gardener was a servant, someone of lowly stature. At the start of the captivity, when the Israelites were hauled out from Jerusalem, the Babylonians left behind the poorest of the poor to serve as gardeners and vinedressers to prevent the land from becoming completely without fruit and produce (2 Kings 25:12). My point is that this was always a lowly job. And as we know, Jesus emptied Himself in the form of a bondservant (Phil. 2:7), serving as the lowliest of the low for our sake.

Now I want to mention that many years ago I was bothered by this passage. I took “fruit” in a very narrow sense to mean leading other people to Christ, and I was concerned because in this sense I didn’t have any fruit. I just want to point that there is no reason to think that is the message of this parable. It doesn’t fit the context, and also the idea of fruit only meaning other salvations is an idea not really found in Scripture.

Generally speaking, “fruit” in the New Testament can usually also be translated as “result.” The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is really the result of the Spirit. The result of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A lack of fruit means that you are not exhibiting or growing at all in any of the things one would expect to see accompany salvation.

The message is to repent; true repentance will bear fruit!  I like how the parable emphasizes that patience and mercy for a (short) time hold off judgment. The gardener demonstrates the heart of God in that everything possible is being done to get the tree to bear fruit. In the same way, God desires that none would perish but that all would be saved, and the Spirit gently urges everyone to repent and turn to Christ. 

We need to be careful not to go too far with the symbolism. Although it is true that Jesus is our mediator between God and man, and it is true that Jesus prays for us (I think of Jesus’ prayer before His crucifixion in John as well as Jesus’ prayer for Peter in Luke 22:31), it is terribly wrong to think of God and Jesus at odds with one another; Jesus has always perfectly obeyed the Father, and to know Jesus is to know the Father.

Like many parables, Jesus doesn’t “finish” the story. Will the tree bear fruit? Will the axe be no longer needed? Did the gardener’s extra care make the difference? We aren’t told. In the same way, for each unbeliever that we know, we don’t know how the tension will play out. The parable makes me want to go out and share the gospel with those who don’t know that their time is short, to pray more regularly and fervently for those who don’t know Christ.

As we wrap up, I encourage you again to think about how these parables apply to you. Are you being a faithful steward, a faithful manager, of your time, your money, of your talents, of your gifts? Are there things you aren’t doing that you feel you should do? Are you faithful at work? At home? In school? And given the parable of the fig tree, are you faithful with the gospel? Are you praying for unbelievers that you know? Are you reaching out to them in love and friendship? Are you communicating to them the reason that you are different – are you sharing about Christ? Write down whatever your conscience pricks you with, whatever you sense the Spirit gently pointing out to you. I’m not going to ask you to share these or anything like that – this is between you and God.

As we pray, I want you to ask God for an action step to take this week. Let me offer a few suggestions: one is to have a short-term accountability partner – Ask someone to ask you next week what you did; how much you share about your issue is up to you. Another is to ask a friend in the church or one of the elders for suggestions about your particular issue. If time is your issue, you might keep a log of how you spend your time – I have found that simply doing this for a while helps to keep your time focused and intentional. If there is a particular action you need to take so that you are again a faithful steward with someone else, do that. Whatever the action might be, write it down. And may we be faithful to do these things this week, because Christ is always faithful with us.